BackSpaceStudios Blog

APNG Training Session

PHUG (PHP Toronto User Group) , a Toronto based online community, is helping contribute to the APNG open source project in conjunction with Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology - School of Computer Studies.

APNG (Animated PNG) is a new format based on and compatible with the PNG format. It was developed to overcome technical limitations of Animated GIF’s. The APNG and PNG specs are not legally encumbered.

PHUG will be putting together an APNG showcase site that will demonstrate the power of this new format.

BackSpaceStudios has offered to help train members of PHUG to use the new APNG editor with Mozilla’s Gran Paradiso browser. training session began this evening at Seneca College with about 30 members in attendance.

We will be holding another training session tomorrow Dec 4th at 6pm, Seneca College of Applied Arts and Technology York Campus RM2046.

For more information on APNG:
http://littlesvr.ca/apng/demo.php
http://labs.mozilla.com/2007/08/better-animations-in-firefox-3/
http://zenit.senecac.on.ca/wiki/index.php/APNG

Pictures from the Training session

Pecha Kucha Night at FlashinTo Gathering v65.0

On Wednesday Nov 28th FlashinTo launched an all new venue and format! There new location at Element156 - Digital Media Center is located in the heart of Kensington market.

The evening was very successful, one of the largest crowds FlashinTo has had to date, probably due to the free beer and pizza. It was great to see so many old faces and many new ones added to the eclectic mix of Toronto’s digital community.

BackSpaceStudios sucessfully brought around 40 students from Seneca’s Digital Media Arts program and a handful of alumni.

Our “Pecha Kucha” presentation was one to remember. We through together a quick slide show of line art and pluged the new PHUG community! We did not win the night, but we had fun and received the second highest votes.

View FLASH KUCHA

Afterwards the Seneca crowd amongst other FITO members headed out to the Red Room and the real party started. The continued over more drinks and Thai food. It was greatto see like minded peope hanging out, getting loud, dancing, singing, and so on.

The night inspired us to develop our own unique twist on “Pecha Kucha’s”. We have begun the process of creating our online Kucha community, for more details see Pet My Kucha.

Visit FlasinTo for more info on the community and upcoming events.

Here’s the flickr feed from that night http://www.flickr.com/photos/egnaro/sets/72157594512196100/

Pet My Kucha Contest Site Launched - The KUCHA revolution begins!!!

The KUCHA revolution begins!!!

After a very successful Pecha Kucha night at FlashinTO, We where inspired to develop our own little twis on this new movement. We are developing a new site called Pet My Kucha. The idea is to develop a space that plays homage to Kucha’s with a spin. We invite all open source media designers, graphic designers, animators and so on to Pet My Kucha in a creative, abstract, and weird way…

The Pet My Kucha contest site has launched. Please visit to see logo contest details.

>>> http://www.petmykucha.com <<<

Pet My Kucha officially launches Feb 1st 2008, we are taking pre-submissions now please review the submission specs.

The Inaugural Blabber!

Welcome to the Official BSS blog!It seems like every designer/developer or firm out there has a blog nowadays. So let the blabber begin! I figure why should BSS be any different.

I can’t even find time to finish up the current site let alone begin a blog with all that free time I have between teaching, running 2 non-profit organizations, and working with BSS clients…

Now that the blog is ready what do i write about? Should I create a bunch of tutorials on web 2.0 badges, buttons, and other junk..? Do people care what I have to say about the industry and my opinions on design..?

After a bit of head scratching I have decided to, or should I say attempt to, develop a Creative Consortium of Open Source Media designer/developer projects. Essentially a bunch of industry jargon thrown together..

I’m calling on all designers and developers out there that would like to share their experiences, knowledge, and insights withing their respective fields. My hopes is to create an online community where we can be ourselves and let off some steam after a rough client meeting..

That’s the idea any way..

So blab away and let’s see what happens